High levels of chemical used by Mobile Gas bubbling up in Eight Mile, utility says it's not their fault

Jacob Anderson said the smell of natural gas envelops his home and neighborhood at night. People in Eight Mile stay indoors at night, he said, because the odor is overwhelming. Anderson's backyard butts up to a Mobile Gas pipeline right of way, but the utility says the smell is not coming from their line. (Bill Starling/Press-Register)

Nobody in Eight Mile was surprised when state officials announced they’d found high levels of a chemical associated with natural gas bubbling up in a pond last week.

After all, the community has smelled like a giant gas leak for months, especially at night.

“It is so strong, it seems like if you strike a match it will blow the whole corner up,” said Jacob Anderson, an Eight Mile resident. “It will be so strong in the backyard, then it gets up in the house and you can’t get away from the smell.”

Angry residents said that it took months of complaints and even letters to members of Congress before state officials would pay attention to what seemed an obvious and dangerous problem.

In the last few weeks, these signs have popped up in front of homes all over Eight Mile. Residents complain of symptoms including headaches, nausea, irritability, sores throats and burning eyes. (Bill Starling/Press-Register)

“Everybody is talking about it. You won’t see anybody outside at night because they can’t stand the smell,” Anderson said. As he spoke last week the heavy, sulfur odor of mercaptan — the chemical added to natural gas so people can smell leaks — wafted on the afternoon breeze.

Anderson’s backyard butts up to the right of way for a large Mobile Gas pipeline that slices through the heart of the Eight Mile community. Stand in the right of way and you can hear the gas moving through the big, underground pipe, which serves as the main delivery line for much of the gas sold to Mobile residences.

Mobile Gas officials insist the persistent odor permeating several square miles for the last five months is not coming from their pipeline.

“We have sent crews out there repeatedly. Mobile Gas does not believe it is a leak,” said Kesshia Davis, a spokeswoman for the gas utility.

“None of Mobile Gas’ lines are there. The lines are 1,000 feet away from where the strongest odor is. We just don’t know where it is coming from,” Davis said. “But it is nowhere near our gas lines.”

Gulf South Pipeline has a major junction about a quarter of a mile from the spring where ADEM measured the gas. The main pipeline runs from Louisiana to Florida, and the company provides Mobile Gas with natural gas. But officials with Gulf South said the gas they transport is odorless because it has not yet had mercaptan added to it.

Mobile Gas, Gulf South officials noted, is required to add the odorant chemical to its gas supplies because they are destined for residential delivery.

Last week, the Press-Register visited the spring where ADEM measured 14,000 parts per billion of tert-butyl-mercaptan, a chemical not found in nature. It is located down a wooded hill from the pipeline right of way.

The newspaper found small springs on the hillside, and noted sphagnum moss growing in the right of way. That plant is found only in wetlands.

Scientists say the presence of wetland plants and springs on the hillside where the pipeline is located prove that water is moving around underground and making its way to the surface. That creates a perfect situation for any pollutants in the soil or groundwater to be carried from one area to another.

Ron Kiene, a Dauphin Island Sea Lab professor specializing in gases like mercaptan, said the levels recorded by ADEM in the Eight Mile pond are exceptional. He also said the form of the gas measured by ADEM is not naturally occurring.

“I’m not aware of that as a natural compound of any kind. The level they saw, 14,000 parts per billion, that doesn’t sound like that could be coming from a natural source,” Kiene said. He also said sunlight breaks down mercaptan, which would explain why the smell in Eight Mile is stronger at night and on cloudy days.

Asked if it was possible mercaptan and natural gas escaped from the pipeline and migrated underground to the polluted spring, ADEM spokesman Scott Hughes said that question would be the focus of an agency investigation.

“Now that we have the analytical results that document mercaptan impacts to surface water and the underground spring, we will be working to obtain answers,” Hughes said. “It will take a detailed preliminary investigation that includes the installation of groundwater monitoring wells, geoprobe efforts, possible soil excavation, and other in-depth technical procedures. .¤.¤. We are working to get those efforts started.”

Residents in Eight Mile said that it has taken far too long for state officials to reach this point. They started complaining last fall, but said they felt that it was only after contacting U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, in January that progress was made.

“We were trying to get somebody to understand what we are going through out here,” said Debbie Parker, who paid for the yard signs that dot the community. “We needed somebody to personally see how it comes into our homes at night, this vapor creeping in. It just inundates and takes over. But you have to come at night.”

Hughes said ADEM inspectors made several visits to the area beginning in November and collected water samples in February. It took several months, he said, to locate the spring that appears to be the source of the odor.

“When it’s bad, it causes irritation of our throats, burning of our eyes. We’re having more frequent headaches, loss of sleep,” said Parker. “When my grandson came over, he was nauseated. You can’t imagine how this invades our homes.”

“At first, we thought we were the only ones smelling it,” said Anderson, echoing a common refrain in the community. Everyone interviewed by the Press-Register, including the mayor of Prichard, described calling Mobile Gas to report a leak around their home when the smell first spread around the community.

The gas company sent inspectors to each home and reported finding no leaks, according to those interviewed.

“After awhile, we figured out that everybody was smelling it,” Anderson said. “If I get a ride home from someone, that’s the first thing they say when we get near Eight Mile, ‘What is that smell?’” 